The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has made a submission to the Parliament of Uganda’s Committee on Physical Infrastructure on the controversial digital number plate project. Officially known as the Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (ITMS), the project is justified on public interest grounds such as fighting crime, improving traffic safety and management.
However, the system’s proposed capabilities, including automated vehicle identification, potential real-time tracking of vehicles and their occupants, and integration with other government databases, raise substantial concerns about privacy, data protection, and constitutional rights and freedoms.
The submission calls on the Committee to assess the ITMS not merely as a motor vehicle identification exercise, but as a large-scale vehicle monitoring and personal data processing system with wide potential for surveillance.
The submission highlights the major legal, technical, and operational concerns that could undermine the project’s compliance with the Data Protection and Privacy Act, Cap. 97. These include the absence of a published Data Protection Impact Assessment, and inconsistent public information about the system’s technical specifications, such as the use of SIM chips, GPS trackers, and Bluetooth beacons.
The submission argues that the design and potential effects of the ITMS go to the root of fundamental rights and freedoms, as they could have a chilling effect on freedom of movement, assembly, and association. Because the project involves foreign contractors and cross-border data processing, it also poses cybersecurity and data sovereignty risks.
To address these concerns, CIPESA makes recommendations to the Committee aimed at establishing robust oversight and safeguarding fundamental digital rights. It also calls on Parliament to require full disclosure of the project’s technical architecture, data-flow maps, retention schedules, and contract terms to enable meaningful public and parliamentary scrutiny.
Furthermore, CIPESA calls on Parliament to require statutory purpose limitations, judicial oversight, enhancement of powers of the Personal Data Protection Office, and conduct of independent privacy and security audits prior to any further rollout of similar projects.
Meanwhile, the ITMS is under Parliamentary scrutiny over legality encompassing the procurement process, financial model and implementation. Several questions as to whether the deployed technology and infrastructure meet the government’s aims and objectives are a going concern.
Children have one job: to make mistakes, try things out, and figure out who they are becoming. Generative AI tools, by handing children ready-made answers, risk taking that job away before children ever get the chance to do it themselves. Yet, a blanket ban is never really a comprehensive solution.
At this year’s forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica ‘26), our Executive Director, Adeboro Odunlami, raised the above as a quiet but pointed concern.
The forum, organized by CIPESA, ran from 28 September to 1 October 2026 in Mauritius. Adeboro represented DIID on the panel “Children, AI, and the Age Debate in Africa”, speaking alongside Belinda Matore (University of Pretoria), Afia Asantewaa Asare-Kyei (Meta’s Oversight Board), Yasmin Ahmed (FemTech Law Initiative) and Lillian Kariuki (Africa Child Online Safety Alliance).
The panel’s focus was to discuss a question of AI, social media and age-based bans in Africa, as countries like Australia, Gabon, and the UK have moved to ban under-16s from social media.
This article was first published by the Digital Initiative for Innovation and Development (DIID). Click here to read more on its website.
Study warns that expanding digital ID and public service systems could deepen exclusion without stronger governance and human rights safeguards.
A new report from CIPESA (Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa) finds that the expansion of digital public infrastructure (DPI) systems across 11 African countries could have significant implications for human rights, democratic governance and civic participation.
The State of Internet Freedom in Africa 2026 report examines DPI developments in Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Governments across the continent are investing heavily in digital identity, payment and data-sharing systems to modernize public services and drive digital transformation.
But the report argues that insufficient attention has been paid to the governance and human rights implications of these systems. It calls for stronger rights-respecting frameworks before DPI becomes further entrenched in public administration and everyday life.
“Foundational credentials such as mandatory gateways and access to essential public and private services are increasingly facing flaws in architectural design and utility, technical failures, and inaccurate records,” the report claims in its conclusion.
The result is often widespread exclusion of vulnerable groups, according to the report, particularly affecting people with limited digital skills, poor connectivity or difficulties accessing civil registration systems which include rural communities, women, children and the elderly.
The report lists an extensive number of recommendations that can offset such problems. The recommendations include establishing robust governance such as rights-respecting national policies and laws, along with investment in complementary infrastructure to foster connectivity and capacity enhancement.
It recommends replacing coverage-only targets with disaggregated meaningful-connectivity and service-completion indicators; stopping internet shutdowns and other blanket connectivity restrictions as tools of political or security management, among other suggestions. The full State of Internet Freedom in Africa 2026 report can be read here.
The report was launched at the closing ceremony of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica26) held in Mauritius. Mauritius’ Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Avinash Ramtoh, described DPI as “a critical infrastructure in any forward-looking country” and stressed the need to ensure digital systems are inclusive, accessible and rights-respecting.
The report’s release marked the conclusion of FIFAfrica26, a four-day gathering that brought together policymakers, researchers, civil society organizations, journalists, technologists, activists and development partners from across Africa and beyond. Discussions focused on issues including AI, data governance, platform accountability, digital inclusion and security, and civic participation. A recurring message was that technology is inseparable from society and that decisions about the design, governance and use of digital systems have profound consequences for rights, participation and power.
As Africa’s digital transformation accelerates, the report argues that these questions will become increasingly important in shaping how citizens access services, engage with governments and exercise their rights in the years ahead.
Africa’s rapid adoption of digital public infrastructure is transforming how citizens access government and private services, but weak safeguards, digital exclusion and fragmented oversight are creating growing risks to human rights and democratic participation, a new continental report warns.
The 2026 State of Internet Freedom in Africa(SIFA) report, unveiled by Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) during Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa 2026 (FIFAfrica26) in Mauritius, examines the growing use of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) across 11 African countries and its implications for privacy, inclusion, civic participation and democratic governance.
The study covered Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
This article was first published by TalkAfrica on October 12, 2026. Click here to read more on their website
Last week, we had the opportunity to participate in the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) 2026, one of Africa’s largest and most important digital rights conferences. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to share OONI tools at the conference and learn from participants.
This year, the 13th edition of FIFAfrica took place in Mauritius between September 28, 2026 to October 1, 2026. The first two days included pre-conference events, while the last two days included the program of the main conference. The FIFAfrica 2026 agenda covered a wide range of important digital rights topics, including tech-facilitated gender-based violence, internet shutdowns, and AI governance, among many others.
This year, the 13th edition of FIFAfrica took place in Mauritius between September 28, 2026 to October 1, 2026. The first two days included pre-conference events, while the last two days included the program of the main conference. The FIFAfrica 2026 agenda covered a wide range of important digital rights topics, including tech-facilitated gender-based violence, internet shutdowns, and AI governance, among many others.
Notably, during the main conference days (September 30th and October 1st, 2026), OONI was one of the tools featured in the Digital Reality Walk, which provided participants an immersive experience to learn about digital security and internet shutdown related tools.
Digital Reality Walk
Image: Digital Reality Walk at the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) 2026.
This year, FIFAfrica 2026 launched the Digital Reality Walk: a fun and interactive way to learn about a variety of digital security and internet shutdown related tools.
Hosted on both days of the main conference (September 30th and October 1st, 2026), participants used the Safe Passage app, developed specifically for the Digital Reality Walk. The Safe Passage app illustrated the route of the Digital Reality Walk, comprising four zones, each featuring different tools and their developers. The tools featured as part of FIFAfrica’s Digital Reality Walk were ButterBox, Orbot, Tor Browser, OONI Probe, Tella, Shira, Dash Chat, and Shout Messages.
To navigate the Digital Reality Walk, participants used a mission log which provided a storyline, guiding them towards several zones where different tools (and their developers) were stationed. OONI was stationed in zone 1, where we engaged with FIFAfrica 2026 participants of the Digital Reality Walk. The storyline that brought participants to zone 1 involved difficulty with internet access and concerns of an upcoming internet shutdown. As participants approached us, we engaged them with the use of our OONI Probe app to measure network interference.
Image: OONI Probe featured in the Digital Reality Walk at the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) 2026.
As Mauritius does not currently implement major blocks, we collaborated with the conference organizers on setting up an exhibition network that blocked access to major social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Linkedin, etc.), providing a simulated environment of internet censorship. This enabled participants (who connected to the exhibition network) to gain a practical, hands-on experience of measuring social media blocks with OONI Probe. To avoid sending false measurements for publication, we ensured that participants had the publication of results disabled in their OONI Probe apps when running tests on the exhibition network.
Through our two-day engagement with participants at the Digital Reality Walk, some key things we learned are:
OONI Probe users need a faster and easier way to test major social media platforms;
While many participants were already familiar with OONI Probe (and many already promote the use of OONI Probe in their communities), fewer were familiar with OONI Explorer: our web platform that hosts all OONI measurements published from around the world.
We therefore provided live demos for both OONI Probe and OONI Explorer in our zone of the Digital Reality Walk. As part of our OONI Probe live demos, we walked participants through the latest features and settings, illustrating how they can customize their use of the tool to measure specific forms of censorship (such as the blocking of specific social media websites). Even though OONI Probe automatically prioritizes the testing of major social media websites, we learned that there is still a need to enable users to more dynamically measure such websites when social media blocks emerge during protests or elections (which frequently occurs across Africa). This is valuable feedback that will inform our OONI Probe app development efforts.
Image: Live demo of OONI Probe and OONI Explorer at the Digital Reality Walk of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) 2026.
Through the OONI Explorer live demos, we showed how participants can generate charts based on aggregate views of OONI data, interpret measurements, and compare measurements across networks and countries over time. This not only helped participants gain practical skills and knowledge on how to access and interpret OONI data from around the world, but it also helped illustrate the value of running OONI Probe and the need to increase measurement coverage across Africa. As an outcome, we hope that more digital rights defenders in Africa will use OONI data as part of their research and advocacy efforts over the next few years.
Beyond live demos and simulated censorship testing, we also had the opportunity to share OONI flyers and stickers with participants of the Digital Reality Walk. We thank all participants for their feedback and questions, and for engaging with the use of OONI tools and data!
Image: OONI stickers and flyers at the Digital Reality Walk of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) 2026.
Overall, participating at FIFAfrica 2026 provided us a valuable opportunity to learn about current and emerging digital rights threats and needs in Africa, engage with many of our African partners, meet many other organizations doing important digital rights work, and learn about new initiatives in the region. We expect that this will help with strengthening our existing collaborations, and fostering the development of new collaborations. We are also grateful to have had the opportunity to share OONI tools and data, and to collect feedback which will help inform the improvement of our tools and methods.
Our deepest thanks to CIPESA for organizing and hosting FIFAfrica 2026, and for having us in the Digital Reality Walk! Warm thanks to all participants, and to everyone else who helped make this important event possible.
Image: Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) 2026.
OONI posted this article on 6 October 2026. Read more on its website here.
